School board to Nashville: Butt out

Despite differences, all agree on this one

The unified school board will not decide until late March or April what its position is on excess schools, but the immediate message to lawmakers is that the board is capable of managing its own affairs.

In three hours Wednesday evening, factions on the board's school facilities committee butted heads, laughed, frowned, bargained and cajoled each other before deciding that whatever suburban municipal districts form, the school board is obligated to have schools for the 105,000 children currently enrolled in Memphis City Schools and the 18,000 who live in unincorporated Shelby County.

It has that space now. What it doesn't know is where children in the unincorporated areas of the county would attend school. It will get data on the most likely scenarios in a report March 22.

But the committee was united that the board can act on its own. Board members will take that message to Nashville Monday and Tuesday in their annual day on Capitol Hill.

"The message we need to send to the legislature is: Let us try to handle it... We don't want legislation being made without information," said board member Reginald Porter.

The other message is that under the current scenario, there is no excess school space in the system, particularly along the border between the two systems where the most coveted buildings are.

If the board gets rid of buildings the municipalities hope to get, county taxpayers will be on the hook for $300 million in new schools.

By state law, school boards cannot dispose of school property without going through a process to proclaim it surplus. That has not happened.

Without knowing what the Transition Planning Commission will recommend for the programs, the new district should offer definite numbers on the number of children who will be enrolled, and board member Theresa Jones said the board is not in a position to negotiate.

"If the issue is not ripe, we can't be pushed into making a decision because we want to make a decision."